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The present invention generally relates to performance measures in a telecommunications network. The present invention more particularly relates to providing systems and methods for ensuring the quality of performance measures in a telecommunications system.
In 1982, American Telephone and Telegraph (ATandT) was ordered to divest local and regional telephone service. The result of this divestiture was the creation of the Bell Operating Companies (BOC). The Bell System was divided into regions and a BOC was created to service each region. The regions consist of multiple local access transport areas (LATA). A LATA generally comprises at least one major metropolitan area. The regional BOC provides service within the LATAs. Inter-Exchange Carriers (IEC), such as ATandT and Sprint, provide service between LATAs and between regions. In general, federal law prohibits BOCs from providing interLATA service.
The prohibition is not absolute. Under xc2xa7271 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Pub. LA. No. 104-104, 110 Stat. 56 (1996), a BOC may provide interLATA service within a region. However, in order to provide interLATA service, the FCC must determine that the BOC meets a fourteen-point competitive checklist, xc2xa7271(c)(2)(B), and that granting permission to provide in-region, interLATA service would be in the public interest.
The fourteen point competitive checklist ensures that the BOC is granting competitive local exchange carriers (CLEC) access equivalent to that offered by the BOC to itself and to its retail subscribers. The BOC may satisfy the checklist by: (1) showing that at least one facilities-based local competitor is actually providing local exchange service in the BOC""s territory, or (2) by submitting a xe2x80x9cStatement of Generally Available Terms,xe2x80x9d identifying the steps the BOC has taken to allow competitors to interconnect and obtain the resources the competitor needs to offer service in competition with the BOC.
A BOC may implement a voluntary self-effectuating mechanism (VSEEMS) to help demonstrate its attempt to provide parity to a CLEC. Under a VSEEMS program, the BOC pays the CLEC a penalty if the BOC fails to provide non-discriminatory service to the CLEC. A BOC may also agree to pay the government a penalty for failing to provide non-discriminatory service as a condition for creation of the BOC.
The fourteen-point checklist requires, in essence, that the BOC demonstrate the offering of stable, nondiscriminatory execution of all operations support systems (OSS) functions for the three modes of competitive entry: interconnection, resale and unbundled network elements. OSS functions include pre-ordering, ordering, provisioning, maintenance and repair, and billing for services. The three modes of competitive entry are interrelated. Interconnection refers to the ability of the BOC network and that of a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) to communicate with one another. Resale refers to the requirement that the BOC offer services to CLECs at below retail prices. And unbundling requires that the BOC sell a CLEC access to individual components, such as switches or lines, rather than mandating that the CLEC purchase access to a xe2x80x9cbundlexe2x80x9d of network services.
To demonstrate a non-discriminatory offering, the BOC must implement a process to generate and report performance measures. The BOC must make these measures available to both CLECs and regulatory agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and local state public service commissions.
Compiling and reporting the performance measures is a complex process. The complexity is due primarily to the complexity of the underlying system necessary to provide telecommunications service. Not only is the task or providing performance measures complex, the accuracy of the reports is critical to ensure that the BOC can complete the competitive checklist to the satisfaction of the state public service commission and, ultimately, the FCC. Due to the complexity of the performance measurement process (PMP), an effective and reliable quality assurance (QA) process is necessary to ensure the accuracy of the PMP reports.
The BOC may perform internal audits in an effort to QA the PMP. If the internal audits are insufficient to ensure the accuracy of the PMP reports, the BOC may employ third-party audits. But third-party audits are both time consuming and expensive. An internal audit process that is capable of satisfying regulatory agencies as to the accuracy of the PMP reports is necessary.
Conventional methods of ensuring the quality of a PMP are inadequate. No efficient and reliable method exists to ensure that PMP reports are produced accurately and reliably each month. Additionally, when a new measure is added to the PMP process, conventional systems are unable to provide audit information sufficient to allow an auditor to understand the purpose and possible effects of the change in a timely and efficient manner.
Also, in many cases, although a technical support staff is able to solve problems occurring during the PMP process, the information to efficiently ensure that (1) the support staff correctly performed the repair and (2) the resulting report is accurate do not exist. Additionally, without sufficient detail related to changes occurring in the PMP, it has proven very difficult to successfully implement a PMP change or correction across multiple BOC sites in a consistent manner.
Errors during the PMP sometimes result in inaccurate reporting of performance measures to both regulatory agencies and CLECs. These inaccuracies lead to both short and long-term costs to the BOC. In the short term, the BOC pays fines needlessly under VSEEMS programs for failing to offer parity of service to CLECs. In the long term, the regulatory agencies delay the approval of the BOC offering in-region, interLATA service, a potentially large opportunity cost for the BOC.
One potential approach to ensuring the accuracy of the PMP is implementation of a generic quality process. Various generic quality assurance approaches exist. For example, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) publishes a set of standards called the ISO 9000 standards that provide a framework an organization can use to ensure that a process meets applicable regulatory guidelines. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) has also published a standard for software quality assurance plans (SQAP). Intended for use in developing and maintaining critical software, the standard provides uniform, minimum acceptable requirements for the preparation and content of Software Quality Assurance Plans (IEEE 730-1998). Also, the National Institute of Standards and Technology has published various documents related to software quality assurance, including a document specifically directed to software error analysis. Although each of these frameworks or publications provides general information for establishing a quality assurance process, they do not provide specific methods for actually implementing a quality assurance program for the processes needed by the BOC.
Generic methods of ensuring the quality of a process offer the advantage of integrating the quality assurance process. However, the generic methods are theoretical. Ensuring the quality of a performance measurement process requires a concrete implementation rather than a theoretical approach.
The present invention comprises a system and method for ensuring the quality of a performance measurement in a telecommunications network. An embodiment of the present invention comprises a performance measurement data warehouse (PMDW) for storing the information necessary to create service quality measurement (SQM) reports. An embodiment of the present invention also comprises a user interface for entering and maintaining performance measurement quality assurance plan (PMQAP) information and a data repository for storing the PMQAP information. The PMDW may comprise a relational database. In another embodiment of the present invention, the PMDW comprises a multidimensional database stored as a file in persistent file storage, or other database or storage system.
The user interface may comprise a menu. From the menu, a user can navigate to one of several additional interfaces. These interfaces include an interface for requesting an additional performance measure and one for requesting a modification of an existing performance measure. Another interface allows a user to prioritize various additions and modifications. Also available from the menu is an interface that allows the user to generate documentation regarding changes to the performance measurement process (PMP).
Another embodiment of the present invention provides a user interface for mapping data fields to business requirements. The user interface also provides the user with the capability to identify quality control points and create corresponding quality control measures.
Yet another embodiment of the present invention comprises a data extractor, a data loader, and a process log recorder. The data extractor retrieves data from existing transactional and operational data stores. The data loader loads the extracted data into the PMDW. The process log recorder monitors extraction, load and other batch jobs and records the status of those jobs, including whether or not they executed successfully and the duration of the job execution.
An embodiment of the present invention allows the user to perform a process to ensure the accuracy of the SQM reports. The process includes accessing the PMDW, identifying sub-processes within the PMP, identifying audit points within the sub-processes and implementing quality control measures corresponding to the audit points. The PMP sub-process may comprise a change control process. The change control process may comprise numerous steps. These steps include identifying a business requirement and documenting the business requirement. In one embodiment, a user enters the business requirement in a change control-tracking tool. Once the business requirement has been identified and documented, a business analyst converts the business requirement into a technical requirement so that it may be implemented in the PMP.
Once the technical requirement has been defined, a committee, such as a change control board (CCB), determines the priority of the technical requirement with regards to any other pending technical requirement. The committee also creates a production release note corresponding the technical requirement. The technical requirement is then implemented and tested.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a change request is received from a third party. The third party may be a state or federal regulator or a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC). A change request may also emanate from within the BOC.
An embodiment of the present invention provides numerous advantages over conventional approaches to PMP quality assurance. A data warehouse containing all the data necessary to provide the service quality measures and the process to ensure the accuracy of those measures provides a competitive advantage over a BOC who lacks either the data warehouse or the quality assurance process or both.
By helping to ensure that the PMP measures are accurate and verifiable, an embodiment of the present invention prevents errors that might prevent a bell operating company (BOC) from gaining timely approval to provide in-region, interLATA service. A delay in gaining approval will result in an opportunity cost to the BOC, the loss of access to the long-distance telephone marketxe2x80x94a 98 billion-dollar market in 1999, according to statistics published by the FCC.
Further, by ensuring the accuracy of the SQM reports generated by the PMP, an embodiment of the present invention allows the BOC to avoid paying voluntary self-effectuating mechanism (VSEEMS) penalties to competitive local exchange carriers (CLEC) unnecessarily.
Also, by providing a single integrated source of quality assurance information for the PMP, an embodiment of the present invention allows the BOC to avoid the time and expense involved in third party testing.
An embodiment of the present invention also provides a single, integrated, comprehensive repository of PMP QA information, decreasing the time and resources necessary to address problems occurring during the PMP by simplifying the location of information related to the PMP. When a problem is detected in a performance measurement process, determining where the problem originates is costly in terms of time and resources. Internal support staff must analyze and solve each problem without benefit of previous experience. In an embodiment of the present invention, when a problem occurs, the technical support resource uses the PMQAP to isolate and remedy the problem. Decreasing the amount of time required to identify and remedy a problem results in numerous cost savings, including a reduction or elimination in unnecessary penalties as well as a reduction in the internal cost necessary to actually remedy the problem.
Further, an embodiment of the present invention provides the ability to recreate a report, as it existed at a point in time in the past. Through the use of version control or by reversing changes contained in documentation, a developer can recreate the report. The ability to recreate a report from a point in time allows an auditor to examine and address errors in an SQM report that were not present in prior versions of the report. Also, any apparent discrepancies between subsequent and prior versions of an SQM report help to highlight possible errors in the PMP, allowing those potential errors to be more easily addressed than would otherwise be possible.
Further details and advantages of the present invention are set forth below.